BARBWIRE by ANDREW BARBANO Pirate Laureate of the High Desert Outback of the American Dream

Barbwire Archives

Barbwire
July 14-December 27, 2016

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO (775) 786-1455
For the Tuesday 12-27-2016 Sparks Tribune [updated 12-29-2016]

Year-end or end of times?

"Save the planet? We can't even save ourselves. The earth has been around four-and-a-half billion years. The earth isn't going anywhere. We are!"

Wise man George Carlin theorized that perhaps God forgot to create plastic and put us here to correct the oversight. Having served our purpose, we can just fade away.

The way petroleum-based predations have proliferated, polluted and perverted, perhaps God perfectly planned our end times and we're too dumb to know better.

WE DON'T NEED NO EDUCATION? Did America become an empire just because of fortunate geography and geology? Not necessarily.

We also invested in that endangered species called public education.

How many times have you heard moonhowlers whine that throwing more money at education does not work. Surprise, surprise, benighted knowledge-phobes: It works.

In 1992, the Reno Gazette-Journal published a magnum opus, about 20 full pages over more than a week proving separate but unequal education in Washoe County.

Donations of outside money to schools in wealthy neighborhoods made a huge difference in outcomes. I personally handed copies to former superintendents Morrison and Martinez when they arrived for their brief career hops thru these parts.

ONLINE IRONY UPDATE: On November 21, 2004, Ray Hagar and Sandi Wright reported in the Reno Gazette-Journal that local schools attended by low-income students tended to be the most poorly maintained schools. (Courtesy of Nevada journalist Dennis Myers' Poor Denny's Almanac)

Fast forward to the Dec. 13 New York Times which reported on a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research. It compared 26 states which devoted additional money to poor districts vs. those that did not. The extra funding produced double the achievement gains of class-size reduction. The effects lasted well into adulthood in the form of "wages that were nearly ten percent higher (and) a drop in the instance of adult poverty."

The story will be linked to the Barbwire expanded web edition at NevadaLabor.com/

LABOR PAIN. Czar Donaldovitch has nominated restaurant chain gang boss Donald Puzder as secretary of labor. The putz has denounced the Labor Department's overtime rule and told the Wall Street Journal that what workers "lose in overtime pay they gain in stature and sense of accomplishment."

Try depositing stature at the bank.

Puzder also detests the minimum hourly wage, wanting to keep it at $7.25 where it cratered in 2009. Lots of coercive conservatives want it eliminated altogether to let the market decide. That market is somewhere in Bangladesh or Vietnam.

Millions of U.S. farm laborers, especially those outside California, still perform back-breaking work for sub-minimum pay. Some Nevada employees get less than $7.25 with tips adjusted against it. Do workers get an independent accounting of the tip pool? Don't dare ask.

America peaked in 1968. The buying power of the dollar has only gone downhill since. Adjusted for inflation, the 1968 minimum wage of $1.60 would stand at $11.10 per hour today, which means workers now laboring at $7.25 are paid 35 percent less than half a century ago.

UNDECIMA. On Dec. 27, 2005, Betty Joyce Luffman Donlevy Barbano passed away in Reno.

YEAR-END OR END TIMES? Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential (HUSH HUSH!) at BallotBoxing.US for the 2016 End of Times Report. Cheap and good for laughs?

Jawohl.

Frohe Weihnachten und beste Wuensche fuer 2017 und

Happy High Holly Days/Merry Christmas/Kwanzaa/Solstice/Festivus/Chanukah/Thanksgibleting...

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
______________
Andrew Barbano is a 48-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us> Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988.

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO (775) 786-1455
For the 12-20-2016 Sparks Tribune

First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin

So sang the late great American lyric poet Leonard Cohen in 1988.

Vladimir Putin must be among Cohen's fans, notwithstanding that he was both a Buddhist and a Jew.

Putin took Manhattan on Nov. 8 and is already working to knock off German Prime Minister Angela Merkel.

The anti-democracy events of 2016 underscore one timeless truth: Ignore your artists at your peril.

H.L. Mencken, the greatest columnist of the 20th Century, predicted Donald Trump's victory a century ago: "As democracy is perfected, the office of the president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and complete narcissistic moron." (Baltimore Evening Sun, 26 July 1920)

His most famous statement has often been paraphrased as "nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." Amen.

Back during the neo-Red Scare years of the Reagan administration, a passel of films were made theorizing what would happen if the Soviet Union took over the USA. The worst was a 1987 mini-series entitled "Amerika."

The script never informed viewers exactly how the Reds conquered this huge country populated with more firearms than people. Perhaps the latter-day KGB's computer hacks, which the Russians have been perfecting against smaller adversaries for years, finally answered that question.

Where are red-baiting Sens. Tailgunner Joe McCarthy, R-Wisconsin, and Boss Patrick McCarran, D-Nev., when the republic really needs them? The height of irony suffuses the upper ethers of the Trump Tower: McCarthy's toxic attorney, Roy Cohn, was a mentor of the younger president-elect.

Triple Pulitzer laureate Thomas Friedman called Russia's intrusions "an act of war." Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell termed them "another 9/11."

"Did Putin seek to mar the brand of American democracy to forestall anti-Russian activism for both Russians and their neighbors? Or to weaken the next American president, since presumably Mr. Putin had no reason to doubt American forecasts that Mrs. Clinton would win easily? Or was it, as the CIA concluded last month, a deliberate attempt to elect Mr. Trump? In fact, the Russian scheme accomplished all three goals." (New York Times, 14 December 2016).

At least more Americans have been taking to the streets than did so during the stolen election of 2000.

How docile we remain is the burning question at the Red Dawn of the Donaldian years.

To quote Ronald Reagan's most iconic 1984 re-election commercial, "it's morning in Amerika."

Red morning, sailor take warning.

Happy High Holly Days anyway.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
______________
Andrew Barbano is a 48-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us> Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988.

2017 Nevada Press Association first-place award winner

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO (775) 786-1455
Expanded from the 12-13-2016 Sparks Tribune

We don't need no education

Have you noticed how vehicle traffic has reached almost suffocating volumes in these parts?

We just won't learn. People have been drawn here just like the casino boom of the late 1970s when gambling employees camped on the banks of the mucky Truckee because housing was tighter than Ebenezer Scrooge at Christmastime.

This week came the troubling but not surprising news of increased numbers of homeless children.

Nevada's inferiority complex is alive and well. Self-loathing breeds self-righteousness which is the root cause of Silver State over-the-hill syndrome. Our civic leaders always swoon for suede-shoe salesmen sporting expensive suits swooping in from out of town and promising to cure whatever ails us.

The likes of Tesla, Reno's Union Pacific railroad trench, the Reno Aceholes baseball team and Oakland Raiders thus score mega-millions in corporate welfare while the great unwashed get stuck with tax hikes to pick up the slack.

Like the movie, gambling and mining industries, the Gomorrah South NASCAR cathedral, Apple, Cabela's and Scheels sporting goods and so damned many others, corporations continue to avoid paying their fair share for the growth they stimulate. Net result: the 2017 state budget has a projected $400 million shortfall.

The Washoe County School District will soon be flush with construction cash thanks to increased sales taxes but bureaucratic tunnel vision rules.

Superintendent Traci Davis told me that Damonte Ranch High School will be expanded first but the school's lead-laced, carcinogenic crumb-rubber artificial turf will stay. What's a little brain damage as long as graduation rate projections remain rosy?

Sparks' Golden Eagle Park is covered with the crumbed-up used tires, as are the athletic fields of UNR, Manogue, McQueen, Carson and Douglas high schools. There's even a small patch at the Jan Evans juvenile facility. (Barbwire 11-24-2015 and thereafter)

When new Wolf Pack football coach Jay Norvell gets here, his students will play on cancer. In nationally televised proof of how much the NFL cares for its players, I was sickened to see crumb rubber dumped onto a snow-covered NFL field last Sunday. 

Betcha that the dons of the jockocracy didn't inform Norvell although he's probably worked on the stuff. I know that local high school coaches are aware of the dangers to their athletes but fear speaking out.

The turf is so toxic it's illegal to dump at a landfill. Superintendent Davis pled ignorance.

But hey, we now live in the day of Trump where there are no facts, just interpretations.

BLAST FROM THE PAST. This Thursday at 4:00 p.m., the City of Reno will dedicate the $745,000 renovation of Pat Baker Park in northeast Reno at Montello and Fife streets. Pat Shannon (Baker), now a Montana resident, led the "instant park" construction in 1968 as a reaction to the murder of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

It brought national recognition to then-apartheid Reno. Shannon returned for the park's 40th anniversary in 2008.

UPDATE: She sent this after the Tribune deadline —

Unhappily, I will not be attending Thursday’s celebration. (Daughter) Kathleen (Baker) will be there in my stead and is prepared to say a few words. She was there at the start of it all and knows the lore as well as myself. I know you will welcome her. Tell all those you know how I regret not being present at the grand occasion but will be thinking of all you.
A cheer for us all.
Pat Shannon Baker
(ps: I have taken my family name, Shannon, back after all these years. Pat)

Happy High Holly Days.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
______________
Andrew Barbano is a 48-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and first vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us> Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO (775) 786-1455
For the Tuesday 12-6-2016 Sparks Tribune

Dark predictions and enlightened people

Last February, I forecast Donald Trump's election based on more than two centuries of history.

The good news is that Trump's win means the current liberal cycle is not over. He was just riding the horse in the direction it was already going. Alas and alack, we will be left to cure the indigestion.

How? With good people doing good work.

LAND OF THE GIANTS. We recently lost two great community servants. About 200 people attended the memorial for "Mother of Nevada Wilderness" Marjorie Sill last Friday at the Unitarian church.

I lobbied attendees afterward for support of a park honoring Mrs. Sill and her late husband, Dr. Richard Sill, both Sierra Club legends.

Friends of Nevada Wilderness Executive Director Shaaron Netherton spoke at the service which came on Marge Sill's 93rd birthday. I attended the FNW standing-room only Wilderness Wingding at Idlewild Park that evening. 

It remains an open question whether or not the former Garden Shop can be saved to complete a mini-Rancho San Rafael at Mayberry and McCarran, but the power I saw Friday was rather awesome.

BRIAN CAREY, 1935-2016. The witty Welshman brought his family to Reno in 1963 and we are richer for his having passed this way.

Brian was one of the first people I met when I came to these parts from Gomorrah South in 1971.

We worked together on a passel of community projects through our Sertoma Club memberships. His descendants, Mark and Mark2 became and remain noted video entrepreneurs.

I am proud to have called him my friend.

AFL-CIO LEADER RETIRES. Nevada State AFL-CIO Executive Secretary-Treasurer Danny Thompson retires on Jan. 15 after almost two decades at the helm of the umbrella union organization.

The five-term former Las Vegas assemblyman brought the movement into the electronic age, winning national recognition for his palm pilot precinct political program in the late 1990s.

He will be succeeded by Las Vegas firefighter Rusty McAllister who will get old quick at the 2017 legislative session.

It's not that McAllister will be new to Carson City, he's just never had so many cats to herd.

SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT SPEAKS THURSDAY. Washoe County school boss Traci Davis will address the Reno-Sparks NAACP's monthly meeting this Thursday, Dec. 8, at 7:00 p.m.

It will be held in the third floor community room at Northern Nevada Hopes, 580 W. 5th Street in Reno and is open to the public. I suggest parking in the rear and entering through the south doors.

School board members have been known to attend and Thursday should be no exception.

LIBRARY EXPANDS SERVICE. Thanks to lots of hard work in building usage, the Duncan-Traner mixed-use community library will see its public hours expanded after the library board meets at 4:00 p.m. this Wednesday, Dec. 7, at the downtown Reno main branch, Center and Liberty streets.

Show up to support the expansion.

Happy High Holly Days.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
______________
Andrew Barbano is a 48-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and first vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us> Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988.

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO (775) 786-1455
Expanded from the 11-29-2016 Sparks Tribune

The Barbwire billion-dollar cure for what ails us

If Donald Trump can make Mexico pay for a border wall, we can make the Oakland Raiders solve the state's $400 million projected budgetary shortfall.

The ghost of Al Davis has played Nevada like a streetcorner hooker, schmoozing, seducing, then stealing the working girl's purse.

It appears increasingly unlikely that the Raiders will move to Gomorrah South. What self-respecting pirate would trade the sixth-largest TV market for number 40? Like all corporate welfare queens, the Davis empire merely used Nevada as a shill to extract the max out of northern California and get a freebie new stadium for its prurient propositioning.

So what to do with the enabling legislation? Passed by a sheepish super-majority in an instant special session, it allows Clark County's hotel room tax to be raised by two percentage points which will generate almost a billion dollars.

Thanks to disgraced Gov. Jim the Dim's tax initiative, it takes a two-thirds legislative super-majority to raise any tax. However, the 2017 legislature can simply re-direct the Raiders revenues with a simple majority vote because it's no longer a tax hike.

The money can go toward building and repairing schools and can even lessen demand on the permanent regressive sales tax passed for Washoe schools earlier this month.

Our corrupt (thank you, Mr. President-elect) political leaders have passed out corporate tax freebies like cookies and condoms at an orgy.

All new growth thus burdens us, the great unwashed. Schools are bursting, police and fire services have yet to be restored to pre-recession levels, roads are patched with bubble gum and parks are going back to nature the hard way, speaking of which...

MARGE SILL PARK? At 1:00 p.m. this Friday, Dec. 2, at the Unitarian Universalist Church on Del Monte Lane, Nevada will say goodbye to environmentalist giant Marjorie Sill. A fitting tribute would be to convert the former Garden Shop and ranch house at Mayberry and W. McCarran into Marjorie Sill Park.

Washoe County officialdom tells me it can't afford acquisition and Reno is technically insolvent. Private money will thus have to keep it from going mondo condo. It's already surrounded by county parkland so it's time to mobilize the neighbors, the city and the legislature. The state will have the money.

With all this new infrastructure revenue, we might even name a school on behalf of the Raiders in honor of the late Darryl Stingley.

We must ensure its athletic fields are not carpeted by brain-damaging, lead-laced, carcinogenic crumb-rubber turf. (Barbwire 8 Dec. 2015) Lawmakers should devote funding to replacing that green plague in parks and athletic fields statewide, including UNR's Mackay Stadium, speaking of which...

YOU'RE FIRED. None of the news about the axing of UNR football coach Brian Polian has used the word "fire." It's been spun as mutual parting, although Polian told the Reno Gazette-Journal before winning the UNLV game last week that "if it happens, I absolutely disagree with it."

Former coach Chris Ault is among rumored replacements. Ain't gonna happen. His abrupt departure after a final-minute bowl loss four years ago signaled his realization that UNR cannot be competitive in a big-bucks pro-ball environment.

Hope you and yours enjoyed enthralling Thanksgibleting. Happy High Holly Days.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
______________
Andrew Barbano is a 48-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us> Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988.

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO (775) 786-1455
Expanded from the 11-22-2016 Sparks Tribune

Toxins, turkeys, takeovers and true Nevadians

Last week, Reed and Damonte Ranch high schools played football on lead-laced, carcinogenic crumb rubber artificial turf at McQueen High.

Damonte will play for the northern title at the same location. Nevada is infested with green plastic hazardous waste sites, including Manogue, Douglas, Carson High, UNR's Mackay Stadium and Peccole baseball park. (Barbwire 8 Dec. 2015)

Reed's team often practices at Sparks' Golden Eagle Regional Park which is covered with the stuff. It must be eliminated.

INTO THE SUNSET. Longtime Elko County Commissioner and Republican State Assemblymember John Carpenter passed away last Saturday at 86.

In 1980, I attended an Elko commission meeting with my wife, Betty; future State Sen. Randolph Townsend, D- and later R-Reno; and a former Carpenter schoolmate, Sparks activist Rosalie Beasley. She had become Elko's first female casino dealer in 1944. We tried to convince Elko to join a coalition to convert the northern rural power system to ratepayer ownership, a far cheaper alternative to SPP/NVEnergy's proposed takeover.

"You're just a socialist," Big John groused at me. The Elko and Winnemucca cowboys did not listen and their constituents have been stuck with NVE's higher rates ever since.

I told that story a few times in legislative testimony over the years and we always had a good laugh.Turned out John was occasionally a pretty good socialist himself.

A few years back, he fought the privatization of Elko's hospital because he saw public ownership as being in the best interests of his constituents.

Wish we had more like him.

MEA CULPA DEPT. Shortly after last week's edition closed, I received conflicting information from Washoe County government regarding the annexation status of the former Garden Shop property which should be converted into a mini-Rancho San Rafael.

Although surrounded by county parkland, the 3.77-acre ranch house area at Mayberry and W. McCarran already lies in the City of Reno.

LAND GRAB DEPT. "Nevada received 3,992,000 acres of public land from the federal government in 1864 to be used for schools, and only 2,914 acres of those lands still remain in state hands, much of it lost in illegal or fraudulent land actions," former Tribunite Dennis Myers wrote awhile back in the Reno News & Review [5 Nov. 2015, updated on 18 July 2013]

Nonetheless, GOP Nevada Rep. Mark Amodei is pushing a bill to hand over millions of acres to the state. Democratic U.S. Sen.-elect Catherine Cortez-Masto expressed her opposition, noting that Nevada does not have the money to manage millions of acres. We also don't have trustworthy government.

CARTOON REALITY. BallotBoxing.US and most of my other sites now display the political cartoon of the year from the LA Times' David Horsey.

"As Democracy is perfected, the office of the president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and complete narcissistic moron."
The chilling 1920 quote was penned by the legendary Baltimore Evening Sun columnist H.L. Mencken.

In an accompanying comment, Horsey takes great pride in noting that only the LA Times/USC poll correctly called the presidential election.

Not necessarily.

Check out the Barbwire of 16 February 2016: History foreshadows a GOP November win.

Happy Thanksgibleting to you and yours.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
______________
Andrew Barbano is a 48-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us> Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988.

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO (775) 786-1455
For the 11-15-2016 Sparks Tribune

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil 2
The developers waited until two whole days after the election.

Last Thursday, Summit Engineering held a raucous mandatory neighborhood meeting inside the corpse of the now-defunct Garden Shop. ("Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," Barbwire 20 Sept. 2016)

Following the letter but not the spirit of local Phariseean protocol, the pros only served notice to those ensconced within 750 feet. The usual surprise-attack complaints from angry neighbors were expressed. Loudly.

The only reason I knew was TV-4's followup which you will find linked to the expanded Internet edition of this column at Barbwire.US/

As I noted in September, this presents Washoe County commissioners with a minor opportunity to make up for the $13.5 million debacle perpetrated by their predecessors in losing the huge Ballardini Ranch to bulldozers.

The Nov. 10 event dripped with chutzpah. City of Reno representative Jeff Borchardt attended as a "mediator," according to TV-4 reporter Diane Thao. However, the land in question, at Mayberry and W. McCarran, is not only outside city limits but also surrounded by county parkland from Mayberry all the way south to Plumb Lane. [UPDATE 11-17-2016: I'm awaiting additional information as I have received conflicting reports on the property's jurisdiction. Please stay tuned. [1]]

Do Summit and Reno City Hall know something we don't? Bet on it.

Thao noted that the next step is "the planning commission." Hmm. Does not something involving two jurisdictions first need to go before the Regional Planning Governing Board?

Annexation would create a 3.77-acre city island. I wonder about contiguousness. Checkerboard annexation was illegal last time I looked. (Stead is the only exception of which I am aware. That came decades ago and probably involved legislative permission.)

A few years back when Reno was looking at a northern Washoe project, the city developed a very creative annexation gerrymander to make the far-flung rural property contiguous with the city although nowhere near it. The project was never built.

The Bath family owns the property. My sources say they plan to go mondo condo with 20 or so luxury units. Ms. Thao reported that "Summit president Tom Gallagher would not confirm how many lots they were interested in building, but he stated they could range from 4,000 to 15,000 square feet."

The location lies within newly re-elected Commissioner Marsha Berkbigler's district.

The former Garden Shop could and should remain a garden, a mini-Rancho San Rafael. Let your public officials know. Now.

MEA CULPA. In last week's print edition, I was one year off describing county commission refusal to raise taxes for schools. It was 2013. The Washoe County School District was the source of research about local car sales increasing when sales taxes were previously hiked.

GET OUTTA DODGE. TV-4 reports that madcap Storey County Sheriff Gerald Cook-Antinoro is now subject of a recall campaign. Read more than you'll wanna know about this guy linked to this column at Barbwire.US/

GET OUTTA DODGE PART DEUX. A Barbwire reader informed me that the Canadian government immigration website crashed due to overwhelming traffic on Wednesday morning. I wonder why.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
______________
Andrew Barbano is a 48-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us> Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988.

[1] UPDATE 11-19-2016: I was misinformed by a credible local goverment official as to the property's status. The Garden Shop site has already been annexed into the City of Reno. "That means any building on the property will go through the city planning process. Whether the Regional Planning Governing Board has any oversight will depend largely on what Reno Planning decides, I think," the official said, expressing apologies. I will correct this item in next week's print edition and further apologize for any inconvenience to online readers.

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO (775) 786-1455
For the Tuesday 11-8-2016 Sparks Tribune

If you voted early, read this and regret it

The above title also adorned the 2014 election day Barbwire. Welcome to déjà vu all over again.

The 2014 column decried lack of transparency involving candidates endorsed by perennial candidate Sharron Angle's local version of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies. They nuked that section of their website after I called.

NFRA is not part of any elected body but a cleverly titled extremist outfit that wants to impose government by the Christian Bible. (Disregard that new-fangled godless Constitution of the United States, you sinners!)

NVFRA supported Storey County Sheriff Gerald Cook-Antinoro, now up to his neck in controversy after short-circuiting a murder investigation. They also endorsed Washoe Sheriff Chuck Allen, now on TV with Cook-Antinoro opposing background checks on gun show purchases (Question 1).

NVFRA endorsed anti-tax Assemblymember Jill Dickman, R-Sparks, who voted against money for education last year but last month voted for the Oakland Raiders Las Vegas stadium tax hemorrhage. Another NVFRA darling, State Controller Ron Knecht, has led the fight to skim taxpayer money to religious schools. (Screw that new-fangled thing called the Constitution.)

Washoe County Commissioner Jeanne Herman was one of four Republicans who blocked sensible taxation for education in November of 2013, resulting in the WC-1 sales tax proposal on today's ballot.

Washoe new car dealers were behind the 2013 anti-tax campaign. Fearing loss of customers to neighboring counties with lower taxes, the bandidos again oppose this year's screw-the-poor levy.

I was going to vote against WC-1 because of what happened in 1982 with the "save Elderport" regressive sales tax increase. Immediately after their election win, bus bosses killed Elderport.

Reno Gazette-Journal staffers have told me they live under constant threats of ad cancellations when a car dealer sees a story he doesn't like. The RGJ disgraced itself in 2013 doing the bidding of automotive moguls. To its credit, the Reno paper found the courage to expose the current clandestine re-run.

Ironically, the last time Washoe's sales tax was raised, vehicle sales increased, according to the Washoe County School District.

As the old saying goes, "if they're agin' it, I'm fur it." At least they can't kill the schools like they terminated Elderport.

I hope.

LIFE IMITATES ART. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin's venerable TV series "The West Wing" came true. The 2005 conclusion dramatized election of the first minority president (played by Latino Jimmy Smits) who appointed his former opponent (played by Alan Alda) as secretary of state. Sound familiar?

In Sorkin's story, Smits won a narrow victory when late returns came in from — drum roll, please — Nevada.

So will today produce a Silver State sequel? Stay tuned.

BARBWIRE CONFIDENTIAL: If Republican Joe Heck wins Harry Reid's U.S. Senate seat today, he can be proven ineligible because of that new-fangled thing called the Constitution. (No, Heck wasn't born in Kenya.)

His disqualification could throw the senate to the Democrats, at least for awhile. Watch BallotBoxing.US/

Now are you glad you didn't vote early?

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
______________
Andrew Barbano is a 48-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us> Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988.

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO (775) 786-1455
For the Tuesday 11-1-2016 Sparks Tribune

Child pawnography in the year of amorality

"Any system of prolonged political paralysis and failed liberalism vomits up monsters. And the longer we remain in a state of political paralysis — especially as we stumble toward another financial collapse — the more certain it becomes that these monsters will take power."

So warned commentator Christopher Hedges at NationOfChange.org on Oct. 17.

He was not kind to current candidates, parties or process. Indeed, he made the late great Sparks Tribune columnist and radio legend Travus T. Hipp seem all the more prescient over a quarter-century ago when Hipp decried "softshoe fascism loose in the land." (Barbwire Oct. 18)

Alas, as Lily Tomlin once so memorably noted, "no matter how cynical you become, it's hard to keep up."

Nothing better exemplifies all of the above than today's daily digital infestation of child porn masquerading as political speech.

Donald Trump's speech speaks for itself. Others are more subtle, kinda like contracting a bad cold from thin air.

Hillary Clinton is currently airing a particularly egregious piece of kidvid with Mr. Trump providing the audio track. Interlarded between typical Trumpestuous troglodytery, we see the faces of small children watching him on TV. Apparently, the intended message is that by saying these things on television, Trump is damaging kids. But it's Hillary who's paying to propagate the hate in the worst possible way.

Much of what Trump says would go right over a typical first-grader's head. But borrowing from the worst of Madison Avenue cereal and toy marketers, Clinton sells directly to kids by placing their peers in the commercials, thus drawing their attention to the rantings of a narcissistic psychopath.

I'm sure Mrs. Clinton's kiddy ads tested as very effective among focus groups and media consultants. Where was the adult supervision? Was there no one possessed of common decency to dare say "just don't do this"? Apparently not if that person wanted a career.

Speaking of shameless careerism, U.S. Senate candidate Joe Heck is running a spot featuring the daughter of former Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki. She accuses former Atty. Gen. Catherine Cortez-Masto of ruining her dad's career by indicting him on charges of misusing state funds. He was later acquitted.

As state treasurer, Krolicki supervised a college tuition program where parents could contribute years ahead in exchange for guaranteed low rates at enrollment. Krolicki budgeted a million or so for television featuring himself and two adorable kids. Free political promotion. A man providing for his children. What's not to like?

How about Krolicki creating the impression that the cuddly cuties were his own? In fact, he paid expensive professional models rather than the now-grown young lady bashing Heck's current opponent.

Her father didn't consider her TV material, but Joe Heck certainly does. Don't know about Donald Trump.

If you haven't seen the latest presidential political sinkage, I won't repeat it. Suffice it to say that some swine live by the divine right of kings, both to rule and do whatever they please, intercourse without recourse.

Much more at BallotBoxing.US/

Don't vote early.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
______________
Andrew Barbano is a 48-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us> Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988.

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO (775) 786-1455
For the 10-25-2016 Sparks Tribune

Downtown good ole boys never know when to quit

Former Reno Mayor Bob Cashell has endorsed Victor Salcido for city council, which is all the information you need to vote against the young lawyer.

BREKHUS BREXIT: BAD MOON RISING OVER CITY HALL. The good ole boys are still smarting over losing Reno City Hall. They have taken the first step toward repossession by hatcheting Councilmember Jenny Brekhus who upset one of their anointed developers in 2012.

Veteran Reno Gazette-Journal city hall reporter Anjeanette Damon noted that Cashell's support "was more a rebuke of Councilwoman Brekhus than an endorsement of Salcido," an immigration attorney and lobbyist.

Laughably, good ole Bob blamed Brekhus for "a substantial portion of the dysfunction" at city hall.

Diplomatically, Ms. Brekhus responded that when she served under Cashell during her first two years, she asked a lot of questions "about how the city got into (this financial crisis) and I could understand how, in Mayor Cashell's perspective, that may be perceived as an attempt to level blame on him and the council that served when the debt was taken on," she told Damon.

"My motivation was never to place blame," she added, "it was my astonishment of just how dire the financial situation was."

Councilmember Brekhus won't place blame, but I will and often have.

Thanks to years of copious and copulative corporate welfare tax giveaways, Reno teeters on bankruptcy. Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank can foreclose anytime they want and force tax increases to reimburse them for hundreds of millions in debt.

I've recommended deeding over city hall and calling it even, but the value of the black tower won't even cover the interest.

Councils under Cashell and egomaniacal Jeff Griffin before him rolled over and played dead for any out-of-town hustler in thousand-dollar suede shoes pitching some grandiose deal to raid the city treasury. (Union Pacific's railroad trench, Cabela's, Reno Aces, downtown corporate welfare redevelopment agencies: the list is both expensive and endless.)

This is a major reason why schools, parks, roads, police and fire protection have starved. Salcido blames Brekhus, not his patroon.

Mr. Salcido's election literature states he wants "solutions for schools and traffic." So does he want to unwind much of the corporate welfare Cashell caused? Go ask.

Bob Cashell is a born leader who started out humbly as manager of Bill and Effie's truckstop and built it into Boomtown.

Alas and alack, once in power, stars got in his eyes. He walked into the oval office a Democrat and came out a Republican after facetime with King Ronald the Vague.

Bob just forgot where he came from and has no credibility in trying to return city hall to the days of disgraced City Manager Andrew Clinger, a Cashell hire. Clinger brought what insiders have told me is a typical anti-government approach to governance. (For instance, eroding civil service hiring protections and conducting testing which screens out minority police applicants.)

When Bob Cashell accuses Brekhus of causing dysfunction, he's actually looking in a mirror.

NAGPAC WHITE SHEETS ALERT: I'm breaking major news over the next several days and Barbwire Confidential subscribers get it first. Sign up at BallotBoxing.US/

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
______________
Andrew Barbano is a 48-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us> Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988.

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO (775) 786-1455
For the 10-18-2016 Sparks Tribune

Oakland Rapists: Softshoe fascism on steroids
Nevada adopts an official state religion: The NFL

"Softshoe fascism is loose in the land." — Travus T. Hipp, 1990

The late Tribune columnist and radio legend correctly forecast corporate control of government. With the militarization of our police departments, the jackboots have hit the ground.

At least the Washoe legislative delegation mostly held firm against the greed of Gomorrah South last week. Kudos and congrats to hyper-conservative Sen. Don Gustavson, R-Sparks, who voted with newly-appointed Sen. Julia Ratti, D-Sparks, against Sheldon Adelson and Al Davis' blackshirted traveling tax pillagers.

In the lower house, Assemblymembers Mike Sprinkle, D-Sparks, Teresa Benitez-Thompson, D-Reno, and Amber Joiner, D-Reno, voted no.

Republican P.K. O'Neill (south Washoe, mostly Carson), defrocked in the primary for supporting last year's $1.4 billion tax hike, doubled down for Adelson on his way out the door. Ditto freshman Jill Dickman, R-Sparks, and two Reno one-shot Republican replacements.

The strongest voice in dissent was that of former Tribune columnist Ira Hansen, R-Sparks.

Ira and I disagree on just about every issue, but when it comes to corporate welfare tax giveaways, we have always been peas in a pod.

INVASION OF THE POD PEOPLE. Donald Trump, Jr., is scheduled to speak before the Republican Men's Club at an Oct. 18 luncheon at the Atlantis-Reno.

According to BuzzFeed News, on a 2013 talk show he "was asked about women who complained of sexual harassment in all-male environments like men-only golf clubs....

"He (said) that if women feel harassed by the comments men want to make, they should just leave their jobs. 'I’m of the mindset, and I’ll get in trouble…If you can’t handle some of the basic stuff that’s become a problem in the workforce today, you don’t belong in the workforce....You should go maybe teach Kindergarten. I think it’s a respectable position. You can’t be negotiating billion-dollar deals if you can’t handle, like you know.'

"He didn’t elaborate on what he meant by 'like you know,'” commentator Bryce Covert wrote at NationOfChange.org.

I assume that all Atlantis foodservers will be pre-screened and forced to sign affidavits allowing their asses to get pinched.

PODCAST, PART DEUX. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, will campaign for Mrs. Clinton in Reno on Oct. 19 at an undisclosed time at an undisclosed location. Reservations are required for the great unwashed and separately for media-types. Unlike Bernie, the Clinton campaign screens out undesirable writers. I proudly made that enemies list earlier this year. My only question: Who is this guy coming to Reno and where have they stashed the real Bernie?

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS. According to the Reno paper, three self-styled conservatives were staying at Moonlight Bunny Ranch guest (ahem!) houses east of Carson City when fire wiped out brothel owner Dennis Hof's estate in Washoe Valley. All were in the capital to support Sheldon and his Oakland shysters. The most surprising was moonhowler Chuck Muth, an Adelson-funded acolyte of anti-tax DC guru Grover Norquist. (Yes, the moon was full when the ledge was voting.)

Madcap Assemblymember John Moore, R-LV, was among the guests, as was my fantasy fiancé Michele Fiore, R-LV. (See the online Barbwire of 10 March, 2015, for lotsa lascivious laughs — with photos.)

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
______________
Andrew Barbano is a 48-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us> Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988.

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO (775) 786-1455
For the 10-11-2016 Sparks Tribune

Psychotrump vs. Pantsuit: Vegetarian confrontation

Last Sunday's reality TV show was revealingly vegetarian. Sacred cows remained whole. No steaks were barbecued.

To heal, you must first realize you have a problem. America's is dietary.

Both Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton avoided the red meat issues: our bloated military budget and the futile war on drugs.
However, while tromping through the garden of defensive democracy, Donald Trump accidentally stumbled upon legitimacy.
"All Ronald Reagan had to do to win the presidency in 1980 was convince the great unwashed that he would not blow up the world, a very low threshold against unpopular incumbent Jimmy Carter," I wrote last month before the first Trump-Clinton love fest.
The Donald's Reaganautical mission was finally accomplished Sunday. He surprisingly seemed rational at times.
Whatever the outcome — and the psycho could still win — Donald Trump has done America a great service. He has taken America's racism, sexism and bigotry out of the closet for all the world to see and for us to ponder.
"We have met the enemy and he is us," Porkypine once opined in Walt Kelly's legendary Pogo comic strip.
During our summer of police shootings, I offered my top 10 cures for what ails us. (Barbwire July 12)

1. END NIXON'S BOGUS WAR ON DRUGS. In 1994, former Nixon White House aide John Erlichmann told journalist/author Dan Baum that Richard the Rotten hated two enemies, "the antiwar left and black people. We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities...Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did." (Harper's Magazine, April 2016)
Nixon originally started down the enlightened path of treating drug addiction as a disease, but chose the dark with damnable results.

2. START A WAR ON WAR. In his farewell address, our greatest president warned against foreign entanglements. We have ignored George Washington's advice at our peril. The richest country in human history has all the money needed to cure what ails us. We just spend it wrong.

NAGPAC RULES. Nevada's unique "none of these candidates" ballot option in statewide races will set records this November, especially given that the major presidential candidates are ignoring solutions for the problems they promise to fix.
I'm getting bad vibes statewide that minorities and millennials may stay home in droves, 2014 all over again.
I created the None of the Above for Governor Political Action Committee (NAGPAC) as an insider joke in 1982.
The joke is on us.
Porkypine's wisdom abides.
GIVE 'EM HECHT. Joe Heck's character assassination of Catherine Cortez-Masto reminds me of Republican U.S. Sen. Chic Hecht's last-minute 1988 ploy. Trying to save his seat against Democratic Gov. Richard Bryan, Hecht ran saturation TV accusing Bryan of buying himself "a private jet" with state funds.
Actually, the photo shown was the Nevada Dept. of Transportation's in-house aircraft.
But it almost saved Hecht's re-election.
Heck remains the favorite according to pollster Nate Silver.
Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
______________
Andrew Barbano is a 48-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us> Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988.

2017 Nevada Press Association first-place award winner

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO (775) 786-1455
For the 10-4-2016 Sparks Tribune

Don't ask Renown Med for marijuana to help your chemo

I've been spending too damned much time seeing friends in hospitals. At least when I visit I can talk up unionizing to employees and sometimes I learn things.

I've written in the past about how Renown's predecessor, Washoe Med, had internal moles passing info to the Catholic Diocese of Reno so that when a woman came in who needed a procedure frowned upon by the church, she'd be met by her pastor ordering the hospital to refuse. And the hospital complied.

One woman told me her life was endangered by too many pregnancies. The church forbade the hospital to perform a tubal ligation. (The church today still frowns upon birth control.)

Finally, a female doctor did so and promptly left Nevada for a first world country aka another state.

So what happens today if you need medical marijuana because chemo has ruined your appetite and you can't keep food down? They offer marinol pills (the only legal marijuana) which you also can't keep down. If you want to smoke for relief, they say you have to wait until discharge because marijuana is still a class one narcotic and dispensing it remains a felony under federal law. But if you can't eat, you'll get sicker and sicker and may never be discharged.

The dog collars who once prescribed medicine from God have merely been replaced by white collars with law degrees.

DIRTY MOVIES. The closing of the downtown Sparks movie complex is just the latest bitter fruit of Sparks City Hall's ongoing addiction to corporate welfare.

Two decades ago, organized labor protested wholesale violation of wage laws by Syufy Enterprises construction contractors. Unions finally won in court but by then contractors and workers were scattered to the four winds so the blackguards mostly pocketed the employee paychecks. (See NevadaLabor.com)

Syufy went on to burn the city for $1,035,000 in good faith money which was supposed to guarantee timely and effective completion of redevelopment projects.

PARTY ON. The Reno-Sparks NAACP's 71st Annual Freedom Fund Awards Banquet happens this Saturday, Oct. 8, at Circus Circus — a union shop. For tickets, contact me or go to RenoSparksNAACP.org/

GLASS CEILING BREAKER. Debbie Calkins, the first woman to lead Teamsters Local 533, will talk with journalist Ray Hagar on Sam Shad's Nevada Newsmakers show Tuesday, Oct. 4. It premieres at noon on TV4-Reno and TV-10 Elko. Charter cable victims can view the first re-run at 9:30 p.m. on channel 190. The expanded web edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com will link the full statewide TV-radio-online rebroadcast schedule.

ADDING INSULT TO INJURY DEPT. Bernie Sanders' former Reno campaign HQ on W. 4th Street is now occupied by the Washoe GOP.

INSULTS, TOO. Remember when political ads were barred from local TV news? Corporate greed has created a propagandist's dream, ads indistinguishable from news segments.

HOLY TREASON, BATMAN! Three stickers on an SUV with California plates: "Sacramento River Cowboy Church", "Make America Great Again" and a Confederate flag.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
______________
Andrew Barbano is a 48-year Nevadan, first vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and editor of NevadaLabor.com. As always, his opinions are his own. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us> Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988.

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO (775) 786-1455
For the 9-27-2016 Sparks Tribune

Wolf Pack defeat foreshadowed Trump debate win

Donald Trump won the presidential debate on Monday evening, and I so swear as I write this on Sunday.

Whence the chutzpah to venture back to the future? Because the situation is/was a replay of 1980. Even CBS' fabled 60 Minutes show got in on the con.

The venerable TV news magazine started its 48th season Sunday with a scary story about Czar Vladimir and his howling commies seriously considering (oxymoron alert!) "small scale" nuclear war.

No contrarian positions were presented, just a bunch of brasshats and one atomic scientist. Don't we know by now that once generals are given new toys that they will always seek opportunities to use them?

At least 60 Minutes didn't include The Donald's mental meltdowns about how he would not rule out using doomsday devices.

"You can never take cards off the table," he has said, adding "You want to be unpredictable."

If we can't use them, "then why are we making them?" he has asked. This guy probably thinks Nuclear Deterrence is a new fragrance at Bloomingdales.

Trump is a documented sociopathic narcissist. He loves it when people kiss his sensitive ass, as Vladimir Putin publicly did. The reincarnated KGB apparently hires excellent psychological profilers. The Donald predictably replied in kind.

When anyone crosses him, the playground bully's kneejerk reaction is to get even with extreme prejudice.

Anti-arms control Cold War Reaganauts are back — on steroids. Which is why I assert with little fear of contradiction that Trump won last night. Again, I write this before the preening and prancing.

All Ronald Reagan had to do to win the presidency in 1980 was convince the great unwashed that he would not blow up the world, a very low threshold against unpopular incumbent Jimmy Carter.

I would not be surprised if Trump stole Reagan's "there you go again" to laugh off criticism.

Democrats once rejoiced that Hillary Clinton's opponent is the weakest thrown up by the Republicans since Barry Goldwater in 1964, another victim of nuclear scare.

Little did the Donkeykongers realize that their standard bearer would be the weakest Democrat since perhaps James M. Cox. Who? Exactly.

CRYSTAL BALLS. A psychic moment gave me the idea for this column. I spent much of Saturday with a hospitalized friend and his family. I missed TV news and thus had no idea how UNR fared against the Purdue Boilermakers. So before I opened the Sunday paper, I ventured a guess: Purdue 31, UNR 21. Ten points. Which indeed turned out to be Purdue's exact margin of victory (24-14).

Attempting to make it two in a row, such preternatural ignorance (oxymoron alert) informed my going with The Don.

Wonder how I did.

YOU'RE FIRED. Ma Bell has pink-slipped my ancient flip phone as of December 31. I didn't lose my virginity until a colleague pushed me to get a cel-phone for the 2006 campaigns. Until then, I spent about two bucks a month on pay phones.

AT&T has offered to give me a free replacement. A Samsung. Aaaarrrrgh!

It damn well better come with smoke alarm, fire extinguisher and hospitalization insurance.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
_________
Andrew Barbano is a 48-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us> Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988.

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO (775) 786-1455
For the 9-20-2016 Sparks Tribune

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Given today's bizarro follytix, the above title from Clint Eastwood's 1997 movie is ghastly appropriate.

THE GOOD. Washoe County commissioners have a narrow window of opportunity to slightly atone for a major sin of their predecessors.

In 2006, a previous commission was poised to acquire the 1,119-acre Ballardini Ranch in southwest Reno, the last large swath of open space in the Truckee Meadows.

They chickened out under legal threats and handed a Minnesota developer $13.5 million in taxpayer money for hurting his feelings.

Only the Great Recession stopped the bulldozers.

Nevadans have always had to fight for parks. Compared to Gomorrah South's sprawling neon asphalt, we're way ahead in these parts.

For years, Rancho San Rafael was on the edge of mondo condo, a malady facing The Garden Shop today. A few years back, the five-decade institution relocated from Gentry Way to the wooded southeast corner of Mayberry and McCarran.

The late, great Tribune columnist Travus T. Hipp and I attended Mr. Vegetable's memorial service there. In overalls and a straw hat festooned with waxed fruit, popular Nevada musician Gene Klump engineered an awesome second act as radio and television's Mr. Vegetable.

Unlike today, our three talk radio shows were credits to the community. The Garden Shop made Gene's program possible.

The Garden Shop will close on Oct. 2. Proprietor Ed Bath chalks it up to chain stores granted taxpayer-funded corporate welfare and burdensome regulation.

The gorgeous manor house, converted to a gardeners paradise, sits on four acres surrounded by existing park space. The county commission must act to preserve it. The City of Reno is broke from past corporate welfare tax freebies. Please contact me if you want to help.

GOOD, PART DEUX. Addressing last weekend's NAACP regional conference at Circus Circus-Reno, University of Nevada President Marc Johnson supported recent human rights demonstrations by football alumni Colin Kaepernick and Brandon Marshall. Bueno.

THE BAD. I submitted a query to the NAACP law enforcement panel: "Show of hands: Do you support background checks at gun shows?"

Only Commander Adam Summers of the state police academy and Salt Lake City school principal James Yapias raised their hands.

Hands down: Sparks PD Chief Brian Allen; interim Reno Chief Jason Soto; Dan Schiess, criminal chief of the U.S. attorney's office; Nevada Parole Commission hearings examiner David Smith; Dr. Darcy Davis of state prison behavioral services and Nevada Highway Patrol Lt. Harold Hughes II. Washoe Sheriff Chuck Allen did not attend.

Sparks Chief Allen said there's a city ban on officials making statements on ballot questions. Afterward, I reminded him I didn't ask about a ballot question. He then said he supported background checks. I asked him to send the city policy.

THE UGLY. Sheriff Allen and Storey County Sheriff Gerald Cook-Antinoro appear on a Nutso Rifle Association spot opposing November Question One to close the chasmic/orgasmic gun show background check loophole. Lie down with dogs, you get fleas. Their shabby records of public service will be linked to the web edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com/

Wear insect repellent.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
______________
Andrew Barbano is a 47-year Nevadan, first vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and editor of NevadaLabor.com. As always, his opinions are his own. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us> Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988.

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO (775) 786-1455
For the 9-13-2016 Sparks Tribune

Blackguards, gypsy cops and police poltroons
"The Lord created the world, mankind built the cities and the devil thunk up the small town." — old saying

"How to Get Away With Murder" has morphed from bad network TV to familiar Nevada soap opera.

In 2014, I began a never-ending series about the meanderings of the madcap sheriff of Conforte County...er, Tesla County...er, Storey County, Nevada.

Last Sunday, The New York Times published an investigation about police gypsies, officers who leave when the heat's on, then pop up as cops in often unsuspecting small towns.

Storey County Sheriff Gerald Cook-Antinoro is my pick to click as poster child for that particular pandemic.

The problem is eerily similar to the longtime lack of a national database on police shootings.

When Reno News & Review editor D. Brian Burghart noticed, he built one, FatalEncounters.org/ (The Washington Post picked his brain, stole his idea and won a Pulitzer without so much as a thank-you. Post/Amazon boss Jeff Bezos is thus a blackguard with a green back.)

Because backgrounds on bad cops are hard to come by, police gypsies like Gerald Cook-Antinoro proliferate.

He got a job in Storey County at the recommendation of a former colleague in the notorious Nevada-Utah bordertown of Wendover. Then known as Gerald Cook, Antinoro scurried to Las Vegas and changed his name. He failed to find work in Gomorrah South law enforcement, but Storey County hired him in good ole boy fashion. If you're interested in trashy tales of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, you may access my series via the Barbwire web edition at NevadaLabor.com/

The current skulduggery about the sinister Storey sheriff involves murder most foul.

A couple of years ago, a bloody Judith Black was found at the bottom of a staircase in her Virginia Highlands home. Her husband said she fell to her death.

During crime scene investigation, the sheriff showed up, interrupted his deputies and personally took over. Acting as county coroner, he quickly ruled Mrs. Black's death an accident — despite blood all over the upstairs area and at the top of the staircase.

In typical small town backbiting fashion, he nonetheless got re-elected in 2014.

Both the Washoe and Clark County medical examiners ruled the death a homicide well over a year ago. With a new district attorney, Black's husband was arrested for murder last week. Insiders say that the investigation was so botched by Cook-Antinoro's intervention that the accused will probably get away with it.

Judith Black was wealthy, leaving her widower with megabucks to hire top gun criminal lawyer David Houston who recently came to international prominence as wrestler Hulk Hogan's mouthpiece. Houston promptly presented his first line of defense to the media: The sheriff hisself ruled it accidental. What more do you want?

If and when this comes to trial, Mr. Houston should beware. Basing his defense on the credibility of Gerald Cook-Antinoro is a very bad bet.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
______________
Andrew Barbano is a 47-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us> Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988.

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO (775) 786-1455
For the 9-6-2016 Sparks Tribune

None of the Above looking good in 2016

"Never say 'no.' If you make a promise, the matter is not fixed. It's for a future day. It affects only a few people. But if you say 'no,' you alienate many people right away."

After 2,000 years, that sage advice still stands.

It came in 64 BCE to the legendary Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero from his brother, Quintus, who apparently was a pretty good campaign manager.

We plebeians may carp that we hate politicos who tell us anything we want to hear, but the fact remains that's what we want to hear. When voters get dissed, disillusionment develops very rude remedies.

I resemble that remark. In 1982, the two major candidates for governor were basically the same colorless lawyer. Voters at least expect entertainment from those seeking exaltation.

So 34 years ago this month, a bi-partisan bunch of malcontents formed the None of the Above for Governor Political Action Committee (NAGPAC). I made sure we raised significant issues (see NevadaLabor.com) but we respected another truism: "Before you can preach, you must entertain." So advised legendary Hollywood director Frank Capra.

In honor of the Great Reaganesque Recession, I called a press conference at the aptly named Depression Deli. We formed a soup line and I spoke from a soapbox. It got national press and the only one not laughing to this very day is the humorless guy who won.

From my crate, I noticed a striking brunette who resembled Jacqueline Kennedy.

Thus began a long friendship between the lady, Beverlee "B" Shields, my wife and I. She was married to superstar Nevada cancer doctor John Shields until her death August 24. Her daughter, Lisa, became Diane Sawyer's right-hand at ABC News and currently serves as a major executive at New York's Council on Foreign Relations.

B was the crazy friend most people dream of having. We had B. May she dream in peace.

LIFE'S GUIDEPOSTS. I may soon do a whole column listing ways to tell if you've lived in town too long. For instance, if you walk into a bar for the first time but its resident drunk calls you by name, think about moving. Another is when you begin reading obituaries before the comics.

On the same day B's obit ran in the Reno paper, Jim Elliker's appeared below it. I knew the family in the 1970's. His mother and father, Gay and Shirl, ran Jewelart in Moana West Center. They stand among the finest people I've ever known. Shirl passed away a couple of years ago (Barbwire 2-27-2014). They lost a grand-daughter, Jim's niece Callie Hutson, not long thereafter.

Jim Elliker will be remembered at an 11:00 a.m. memorial service Wednesday, Sept. 7, at the Sparks LDS church, Rock Blvd. at McCarran. Elliker, 50, died in a fiery Aug. 30 light plane crash in a Sparks RV park. He leaves his wife, Megan, and four children.

Adios.

May your love and laughter reverberate for 2,000 years.

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO (775) 786-1455
For the 8-30-2016 Sparks Tribune / Updated 8-31-2016 and 10-18-2016: Kaepernick's forefathers persecuted

Walk a mile in Colin Kaepernick's cleats

"In this country, American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate." — Toni Morrison

As kneejerk America derides San Francisco 49er QB Colin Kaepernick, we should remember that he teaches a valuable lesson for Labor Day: Many black people view the world differently than white people.
For an Italian-American kid who grew up on the ethnic side of Fresno, Calif., that sure took a long time for me to realize.
Kaepernick is highly regarded in this community and not just for his legendary tenure in UNR football. He was involved in local issues and has returned several times to speak of his faith at a local church. The young man is a person of principle.
The current dustup is emblematic of Bill Maher's line "Americans don't do nuance."
If they did, they might remember that the pledge of allegiance was written as advertising copy by a guy who sold flags. The national anthem is a rewrite of the old British drinking song "To Anacreon in Heaven."
Give enough time for short attention span America to forget and the flag and the anthem become establishment religious symbols. Kaepernick, a high priest of our national religion, the NFL, has thus committed heresy if not treason, both burning offenses in the minds of the narrow.
When gymnast Gabby Douglas did not place her hand over her heart at a Rio Olympics ceremony, she was trashed and apologized. Two white shotputters left their hands at their sides and nobody said nothing.
Morgan State University professor Jason Johnson terms the Star Spangled Banner racist.
"No one remembers that (Francis Scott Key) wrote a full third stanza decrying the former slaves who were now working for the British," Johnson writes. Key detested "runaway slaves who joined with the British Royal Army in exchange for their freedom."

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

"In other words, Key was saying that the blood of all the former slaves and 'hirelings' on the battlefield will wash away the pollution of the British invaders....'The Star-Spangled Banner' is as much a patriotic song as it is a diss track to black people who had the audacity to fight for their freedom. Perhaps that’s why it took almost 100 years for the song to become the national anthem," Johnson says.

Lighten up, folks, or our mutual future will grow darker.

ONLINE ADDITION from Prof. Johnson's commentary : "Key was an aristocrat and city prosecutor in Washington, D.C. He was, like most enlightened men at the time, not against slavery; he just thought that since blacks were mentally inferior, masters should treat them with more Christian kindness. He supported sending free blacks (not slaves) back to Africa and, with a few exceptions, was about as pro-slavery, anti-black and anti-abolitionist as you could get at the time. Of particular note was Key’s opposition to the idea of the Colonial Marines. The Marines were a battalion of runaway slaves who joined with the British Royal Army in exchange for their freedom. The Marines were not only a terrifying example of what slaves would do if given the chance, but also a repudiation of the white superiority that men like Key were so invested in....(P)erhaps not knowing the full lyrics is a good thing. It is one of the most racist, pro-slavery, anti-black songs in the American lexicon and you would be wise to cut it from your Fourth of July playlist."

ONLINE ADDITION from the Associated Press: "In college at Nevada, Kaepernick said, police were called one day 'because we were the only black people in that neighborhood.' Officers entered without knocking and drew guns on him and his teammates and roommates as they were moving their belongings, he said." (Kaepernick says he'll sit for anthem until 'change' by Janie McCauley, AP, dateline Santa Clara, Calif., Reno Gazette-Journal and nationwide 8-29-2016)

SNOPES.com on Key and the third verse
_____________

SAM LUMPE, 1940-2016. The César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Famer and retired member of Sparks Sheet Metal Workers Local 26/AFL-CIO, passed away on Aug. 24. Full remembrance at NevadaLabor.com/ At his request, no "stuffy memorial service" will be held. That's my man, Silent Sam.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
______________
Andrew Barbano is a 47-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and first vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his comments are strictly his own. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us> Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988.

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO (775) 786-1455
For the 8-23-2016 Sparks Tribune

Bad words, overcooked clichés and foul balls

Adam Laxalt, Nevada's accidental attorney general, apparently harbors deep-rooted problems dealing with male hormonal appendages.
What else may one infer from his annoying habit of cooking leftover clichés with borrowed bromides while deep-frying testicles?
At last weekend's annual warmonger cholesterol fest in the bowels of Douglas County, aghast reporters were again coerced to cover a celebration of sheep ball ingestion.
With Crisco crackling on a hot day, Laxalt jumped from the frying pan into the deep-fat of follytix. He quickly got in over his head, just like his day job.
Laxalt accused President Obama of making America "less safe," adding that he "has not kept our military strong."
Jingo fantasyland is back at the ranch. Perhaps Douglas backwaters are befouled with some mercuric intoxicant which foists the fog of war upon clouded minds.
With the possible exceptions of bubonic plague and influenza, the USA possesses the biggest, baddest, most efficient killing combine in recorded history.
The American public may be getting wise. Apparently attracting raw meat, er...recruits, for the perpetual war machine isn't quite so popular anymore. Major league sports teams have been outed for taking taxpayer megabucks to produce patriotic Pentagon propaganda at games.
Procurement is worse on Taiwan. They've had trouble meeting military recruitment goals because their politicians don't glorify the military at every opportunity.
Most Americans thus don't know that the Pentagon remains the biggest polluter in the country because the war machine is exempt from almost all environmental regulation. (Google at will.)
Critics correctly predicted that Bush the Lesser would spawn perpetual war by invading the sands of Araby like his daddy. They were only partially correct.
Based on our military budget, we have been at war since Dec. 7, 1941. War is a very profitable and occasionally beneficial, if grotesquely inefficient, economic engine. Without war, there would be neither interstate freeway system nor Internet . The code that runs your computer was developed to aim artillery shells in WW2. Upgrades are still committing mass slaughter today.
Most of our war machine is privatized for profit. Once domestic demand is saturated, corporations campaign for overseas customers.
You and I make money on that murderous market. The U.S. government charges a seven percent commission on weapons sales. Business is good.
If TV reports about Syria haven't sickened you, get the September edition of Harper's Magazine and see how we've been helping the sheiks of Araby commit genocide in Yemen.
Weak military, Mr. Attorney General? It takes a lot of borrowed balls to say that, understandable if you've got a deep-fried brain.
LEE CHAVEZ MUERTO. Librado "Lee" Chávez, brother of César Chávez and frequent participant in Nevada César Chávez Day activities, has passed away in California two months after the death of Mrs. César Chávez, Helen. Requiescant in pace.
BAD WORDS. A Washoe County School District press release states "these prelights are intended to give a summary of noteworthy agenda items being tentatively discussed..." at the next board meeting.
If usage of "prelights" metastasizes like the ghastly corporate "proactive," I'm holding WCSD responsible for promoting illiteracy.
Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
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Andrew Barbano is a 47-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us> Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988.